Covering concrete shop floor-DriCore or???

[Christopher Dopp]

Doug,
Thank you for your thoughtful responses and my apologies for being slow to respond. Yes, I plan to use DriCore as the final flooring. I read a review on Lowe's site that recommended coating with polyurethane or paint to make sweeping up easier which I plan to do. Ceiling height thankfully isn't an issue.

I'm 99 44/100% sure the moisture issue is resolved, there's no evidence of previous intrusion before the gutter plugging. We've had a ton of snow, ice and rain this winter here on the coast of Maine, once I cleaned the gutter the issue was resolved. The fact that DriCore has room for air to circulate underneath is one of the things that appeals to me. It will be my shop floor so the cushioning effect over the concrete will be welcomed by my feet and knees.

Lowes sells DriCore for $6.25 each. It's not 2' square but 23.25" x 23.25" which works out to 3.75 square feet. With the 10% vet discount (Thank you Lowes!) that works out to $1.50 per sq. ft. Another concern is I have the steps are on a short wall that is angled 45*  since the DriCore is grooved on 2 sides and tounged on the other there will be a major amount of waste cutting around the angles.

I've been in Dave Diaman's basement shop that is floored with laminate. It looks great and has the foam underlay that gives it some cushion. I'm going to do some more looking around before ordering the DriCore. It looks like cheap laminate with a good cushioned underlayment would come close to the DriCore price.

I was hoping someone here would have had some experience with DriCore. The guys I've talked with at Lowe's and the local lumber yard have no real knowledge on the product.

Thanks again,   g

I converted a detached 1 car garage into a woodshop and used DriCore over the existing concrete slab. I installed it about 7-8 years ago and have been very happy with the decision. I left the tiles as-is without any finish or covering and they have held up well. Walking on the DriCore is much nicer on the feet than concrete and it has held up very well to heavy machines. It is also much more forgiving to dropped tools than concrete. I found it was easy to install and forgiving of dips in the concrete if you level it properly when installing and leave a bit of room around the edges for expansion (as explained in the installation instructions). The thickness of the OSB provides some insulation value (not much really) but it is noticeable.  I also used it in my basement and have wall-to-wall carpet and pad over it. It has worked out very well. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Christopher

[shoottmx]

Ordered driCore from Lowe's today, 240 tiles should be here in a few days. That should keep me busy for a while. There are 4 different 45* angles to contend with so there will be a bunch of angle cutting to get the machine side of the shop floored. Once the floor is down I can run the DC piping, will do a photo tour then before the place gets crapped up.

Christopher, thanks for the first hand report, just the kind of feedback I was looking for. Since your experience without finish has been favorable I'll give it a try, all my equipment is mobile so I can easily roll on a coat of clear poly after the fact.

Should be making chips in the new shop ina few weeks!

Thanks to everyone for your insights,

g

[vernonator]

I used Delta FL https://www.lowes.com/pd/328-sq-ft-Stand.../999919440 and OSB sheets over it in the garage.  

Jay

I used the above as well in the finished part of my basement (not in the shop) with advantec underlayment on top. Only issue we have had are the tapcons coming loose in a couple spots giving the floor a bit of bounce. If I were doing it over I would go with longer tapcon's and more of them to keep things secure.

[EricU]

I used Delta FL https://www.lowes.com/pd/328-sq-ft-Stand.../999919440 and OSB sheets over it in the garage.  

Jay

The lowes description say that it is waterproof.  How hard is it to seal the seams? It isn't that wide

[jimmyjam]

The lowes description say that it is waterproof.  How hard is it to seal the seams? It isn't that wide

It's nearly 5' wide and they have a tape that is applied to the seams.  I would put down a row, put the osb on top, put down another row, then tape the seam.  

https://www.lowes.com/pd/DELTA-0-104-sq-.../999919442

[spazlab]

I used Delta FL https://www.lowes.com/pd/328-sq-ft-Stand.../999919440 and OSB sheets over it in the garage.  

Jay

I also used Delta FL from SpyCor and AdvanTech for my shop and entire basement floor.  I painted the shop AdvanTech with a industrial floor coating from Sherwin Williams.  Very happy with the results.  I didn't even screw the AdvanTech down as I didn't want to put a ton of holes in a barrier I paid a lot for.  I also didn't want to get into trying to 'self seal' holes with caulk on screws, etc.  I tied all the sheets of AdvanTech together with biscuits and great stuff floor and wall.  Once furniture and equipment was down it isn't going anywhere.  I guess if there are wide open spaces it could possibly move, but not a problem for me.

[kingtech]

My first post on this forum (new member as of today)
I installed Dricore R+ (1/2” OSB laminated to 1/2” polyurethane foam) on my poured concrete basement workshop floor about 5 years ago and painted the top surface with three coats of a premium acrylic polymer floor coating - I’m very happy with this (normally a subfloor product) used as the only floor. This is a floating floor i.e. not anchored to the concrete underneath with either Tapcon screws or Ramset powdered fasteners (to permit lateral contraction-expansion and to avoid compromising the vapor barrier). Key issues in favour of Dricore in my view for a workshop floor are the following:
a) The tongue & groove joints in the Dricore provide a stable floor surface (without the need for toe nailing) for a light-to-moderate duty shop environment – But probably not stable enough for heavy shop equipment or a lot of machine movement without adding a top layer of plywood or laminate.
b) the combo foam-OSB tiles provide a comfortable, resilient, warm floor surface – R value of 3.
c) the interlocking pattern of the OSB top portion of the tiles together with the underlying foam plus the top coating provides a vapour barrier - I left a 1/4” floor tile-to-wall spacing on all four walls and left a 1/4” floor top-to-baseboard clearance to allow water vapor to vent from the concrete floor beneath at the floor perimeter - I then loosely filled the baseboard clearance with strips of permeable poly foam to prevent sawdust from getting into the floor tile-wall crevice.

Before installing the Dricore I first resolved the outside drainage issues. I would NEVER have installed Dricore in the basement unless all possibility of surface leakage through the foundation footing-foundation wall joint had been eliminated first. In the first five years (the house is now 15 years old) some water leaked into the basement (where there was a negative soil slope adjacent to the house and also by forgetting to lower one of the (hinged) eavestrough pipes during a heavy rainstorm.

Water leakage was totally solved by: moving the eavestrough pipe hinges 4 ft away from the foundation, sloping the soil away from all foundation walls at 3 inches/6 ft, moving all plants away from the foundation walls, installing an 18 inch wide layer of rubber pond liner adjacent to all exposed foundation walls buried beneath 3 inches of soil, and covering all basement window wells with clear Perspex sloped away from the foundation.
Next I coated the 2x4 baseplates with Concrobium for mold control, installed the gyproc wall sheeting with the bottoms flush with the top of the Dricore floor and bottom coated the gyproc with Concrobium.

I keep a small tin of floor coating handy and whenever I chip the coating I apply a quick touch up – the coated surface protects the Dricore from chipping, flaking and scrapes – Mind you my woodworking equipment is mostly wheel-mounted e.g. Shopsmith, Bandsaw, Scrollsaw, etc.
My house has perforated drain piping outboard from the foundation footings (located 8 ft below grade) which drains to an interior sump in the basement (equipped with a sump pump).

As you can tell I am paranoid about water leakage into my basement. Water-saturated soil adjacent to the foundation has 8 ft of hydrostatic head (equivalent to 3.5 psi water pressure at the base) and water can bypass the perforated drain piping outboard of the footings and leak into the basement through poorly sealed foundation footing-to-foundation floor joints.

I live in a fairly dry climate, but the late spring rains here can still overwhelm a poorly protected foundation. On the other hand, if the foundation exterior is well protected from water pooling at the base of the foundation walls there is unlikely to be footing-to-foundation floor leakage or much, if any, water beneath the basement floor – Water vapor migration up through the porous concrete floor or via the inevitable concrete floor cracks would thus be negligible. If flooding or water leakage issues are dealt with beforehand, the foam bottom layer of the Dricore R+ will protect the OSB layer from delamination caused by minor water leaks.

For what it’s worth I also installed a product called Tyroc as a subfloor through the rest of the basement overlain with conventional carpet. Tyroc is a two layer product – recycled rubber bottom layer (1/4” thick) fused to a magnesium oxide top layer (also 1/4” thick) – completely inorganic with large water drainage passages on the bottom surface – 16” x 48” shiplap (overlapping style) panels glued at the overlaps with construction glue to provide an impermeable, mold resistant subfloor – although not as warm underfoot (R value of 0.85), resilient or scuff resistant as the Dricore R+ (R value of 3) for a workshop situation. The Tycor is great as a carpet subfloor underlay though with a combined R of 4.

I hope this helps

Gary K. (kingtech)
Calgary, AB